Japan, this has been an ongoing topic under Green Tea, please share your thoughts on the week old tragedy. Poll question, have you been following the catastrophic sequence of events? Please share.

Greetings everyone, welcome to a TeaWeekend. Please be sure to stop in throughout the weekend and share what is in your cup.

Friday we discussed ultra early harvest teas 2011. You can still vote and discuss Friday's Topic.

This weekends TeaPoll and discussion topic. Japan. Although this has been an ongoing topic under Green Tea, please share your thoughts on the week old tragedy. Poll question, have you been following the catastrophic sequence of events? Please share.

We are looking forward to sharing this weekend's TeaDays with ... everyone. Bottoms up!

I'm following it quite a bit. The recent New York Times slideshow was heartbreaking. These are the kind of events that try humanity in the most challenging ways. The media has been interesting. A study in and of itself. As a resident of the Gulf coast during Katrina, I remember all the focus on New Orleans, which was the most macabre scenario for certain, but entire towns in Mississippi had been obliterated, much like the photos of Rikuzentakata and the like. I guess American media (for the most part) is choosing to focus on Nuclear threat, which is somewhat important, but it sort of makes the tragedy about, "how will this effect us," which seems kind of trashy in my opinion. Not that we shouldn't consider these things...I don't know, the whole thing is so tragic I don't really know how to process it.

I'm following news and conversations on russian nuclear physicist forum, they filter at least exaggeration by media. At some point i thought it's almost stabilized, but situation getting worse with each day. I have uneasy feelings about this.

Also many people still stay in really extreme conditions.

Well, trying to do things i usually do and simply wait, can't do a thing about this anyway.

There are sakura blossoms in my mind and heart for the Japanese People. Work has been dominating my life lately but I am following the unfolding events as much as I can, and I will support the People now and after the crisis is behind them in any way that I can.

Finished last night with the last of my tencha. Afternoon will bring Yamashita's Jirushi gyokuro.

Thank you Brandon and David for so nicely coloring our TDs, in Japanese fashion!

I followed closely the first day, but I could not watch nor read much after this for at least several days. Each time I saw a footage, I realized I was watching people literally dying, and their whole existence being seemingly wiped off the face of the earth.

But then I realized I needed to watch and learn as much as reasonably possible as this is history in the making, and the people's suffering and deaths are an unfortunate part ... and I want to remember.

I will be saving the bags from 2011 Japanese harvest and will do something special with them, not quite sure what yet.

Began the TD with Musashi karigane from O-Cha and just had Kaoru Organic Matcha also from O-Cha with the Mrs.

I noticed today, Japanese cherry buds swelling, and our Japanese Maples as well. It was bittersweet. I have always had a very soft spot for Japan, the people of Japan, and the nature of Japan ... but not the earthquakes nor tsunamis.

Tons of emails and phone calls to Japan, contacting people in the US to "spread the word" on more accurate information than the western press is reporting, working on setting up a potter's relief fund through a national US ceramics organization, and so on.

What is very troubling is that the sensationalist and US self interested press coverage of the nuclear issue here in the USA has just about overshadowed the REAL disater in Japan; the earthquake and tsunami.

Finally today I am hearing the first inklings of a FEW talking heads saying "gee..... maybe we were a little over the top."

Japan had been a lot on my mind recently even before the quake: I have some very dear friends who live there. I visited them there in 2004, and was considering going again this year. So as soon as I heard about the quake, I couldn't sleep until I found that they'd both checked in, safe (on Facebook, which I mostly dislike but which in this case was lovely).

I've been following the news very closely from various sources, including getting insight into the situation through some specific windows like teaChat (reminding us that the agricultural south so far was mostly spared, and that not every fragile thing in the ); photography forums (noting that some manufacturers with plants in the worst-hit areas will have long backorders but others are only minimally impacted by the rolling blackouts); lots of news from international sources; and direct posts from friends.

The cherry blossoms apparently aren't yet opening in Tokyo, but this cherry? plum? was in full bloom as I walked to work yesterday

Hello everyone! Yes, I have been intensely following the disaster in Japan. It is just so surreal to watch some of the footage. I have been in touch with all of my friends and vendors in Japan, and happy to report all are fine. But the country of course will be suffering for many years. My heart and prayers to out to this lovely country so close to my heart.

I´ve been checking news on Japan every day for the past week....it was really horrifying and sad watching the earthquake and tsunami and seeing how many people they affected. But the past days I´ve mostly just been frustrated and irritated by media reports....everything is focused on the nuclear reactor, the situation is constantly exaggerated, misinterpreted and poorly explained making people more and more afraid...I think the journalists are being very irresponsible making people panic about such miniscule radiation levels.

Part of me wants to correct peoples perceptions...and part of me just wants to avoid the topic entirely because I´m tired of arguing with people who seem to want to be terrified.

I think also it´s completely overshadowing what the real disaster is...and the efforts that the Japanese people are making to recover. I think that´s showing a lack of respect....making people terrified of a boogeyman (radiation from Japan) to keep them glued to the TV sets.